Only a month and a half into 2021 and a lot has happened in the fashion industry. With Spring 2021 fashion shows and trends rolling in, it's time for some new additions to our wardrobes. Amidst the closure of many in-person stores due to COVID-19, people have been resorting to online purchases. Over the past decade, e-commerce has dominated the fashion industry. With a highly saturated online market consisting of platforms like SSENSE, Shopify, Net-a-Porter, Farfetch, and more. People now have greater access to garments from around the world through the click of a button. For sustainably-conscious consumers, online shopping has its flaws, whether it be through shipping and other transportation emissions and the immense amount of waste involved in packaging goods. Thankfully, there are a few platforms that make it possible for consumers to uphold some of their sustainable values, such as DEPOP which offers second-hand clothing for sale between consumers or Rent the Runway where you have the opportunity to rent clothing for specific occasions, among the few.
According to a McKinsey & Company survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers have demonstrated an increased concern for sustainability in the fashion sector and have begun to change their behaviours to achieving sustainability goals. Two-thirds out of 2000 surveyed consumers expressed high importance of limiting impacts on climate change within the fashion industry. 57% of consumers have already made large changes to their lifestyles to decrease their environmental impact and more than 60% have focused on recycling and purchasing products that are sustainably packaged.
Figure 1: Change in consumer behaviour during COVID-19 pandemic presented on a graph from McKinsey.
Renoon - The New Sustainable Fashion App
With the rising trends of sustainability and online shopping, we have seen an abundance of online platforms emerge. This brings me to question, do we really need yet another e-commerce fashion platform? To answer the question, perhaps yes. The Amsterdam-based fashion-tech company, Renoon, may be the next big thing. Launched recently, Renoon prides itself on selling new sustainable fashion, pre-owned, re-worked, and rental items. It's the best of both worlds, combining all apps into one carefully crafted sustainable platform.
Renoon’s mission:
“Empowering every person on Earth to combine their self expression and responsibility for a sustainable future is our mission.
We believe the protection of our environment and life on Earth is everyone’s responsibility; the work of smaller groups of scientists and innovators needs a collective and distributed network of people fueling the transformation.
We believe innovation cannot sustain its own because modern times need speedier adoption.
We believe that tools to date are not enough.
That’s why we have built Renoon. But most importantly each and everyone of the members is building a new Universe together.”
So how does Renoon work? It combines sustainable garments and products from multiple websites at once. Consumers are able to find new, used, vintage, reworked, and clothing for rental purposes. The sustainability of each item is carefully scanned. Of course sustainability is a broad term and holds a different meaning to each individual. Thus, Renoon has developed a Sustainability Framework, developed with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the most developed resources from the fashion industry. More information can be found here on this framework. Renoon is the first platform to analyze the social responsibility on a product level in addition to a brand level. On a product level: the materials, composition, certifications, and production processes are carefully considered. When launching the app, you have the opportunity to choose from five areas of impact aligned with the SDGs including Environmental Protection, Human Wellbeing, Animal Ethics, Innovation & Tech, and Modern Consumption.
Figure 2: Demonstration of the variety of categories you may choose from on the app to combine sustainable brands tailored to what you value the most.
Figure 3: The above symbols represent a list of some of the sustainability certifications Renoon looks out for in the products it shows.
Figure 4: Materials are key in sustainable production and the above list is just a few that Renoon looks out for.
With all the criteria enforced for brands to be considered, Renoon currently holds 300+ brands available for you to choose from. You can simply personalize your shopping experience based on your values, discovering how each brand contributes to human wellbeing, animal ethics, and more. Some brands include Veja, Reformation, Levi’s, Acne Studios, Nike, among the many.
While sustainable fashion is slowly unfolding especially online, there is still plenty of room for improvement. Transportation emissions and packaging waste are among the most harmful to the environment. We can hope with platforms like Renoon, brands and consumers can begin to consider sustainability in their fashion purchases. With spring around the corner, perhaps the next time you decide to make an online purchase, consider using Renoon, and feel good about your purchase.
Sources:
- Veronica Slowikowski
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